Today we are checking out the latest Intel P55 based motherboard from Asrock designed to deliver the very latest features to this affordable platform. Features such as USB3 and SATA3 are included as well as some pretty impressive overclocking abilities that help make the Asrock P55 Deluxe3 a very well rounded motherboard...

Like most major motherboard manufacturers Asrock has numerous P55 motherboards on offer starting with the P55M Pro, a mATX model selling for just $100 US and then the P55DE3 at $105 US. Moving up the ladder there is the P55 Pro ($115 US) and P55 Extreme ($140 US). Then finally at the upper end of the scale, Asrock offers the P55 Deluxe that still keeps a relatively low price of $180.

Since the arrival of the Intel P55 over a dozen motherboards sporting this chipset have passed though our lab. Out of all these boards the Asrock P55 Extreme caught our attention as it is one of the most affordable P55 motherboards available. However despite already providing an extensive range of P55 motherboards Asrock has just recently announced their seventh product based on this chipset.

Known as the Asrock P55 Deluxe3 this new motherboard is a little different as it incorporates support for SATA3 (6Gb/s) and USB3.0 (5Gb/s). Although no official pricing has been released for this new motherboard as yet we estimate that the P55 Deluxe3 will be priced around the $180 US mark and Asrock suggest that this is accurate.

The P55 Deluxe3 and motherboards like it are becoming important products as many users looking to upgrade or build a new computer will want to ensure that they can support future USB3 and SATA3 devices. However in order to properly integrate these new features into P55 motherboards motherboard manufacturers must provide additional PCI Express lanes.

This is because the Intel P55 chipset only supports PCI Express 1.0 x1 bandwidth (2.5GT/s) which is not enough to utilize the latest SATA3 (6Gb/s) and USB 3.0 (5Gb/s) technologies. While it is possible for Asrock to use the PCI Express 2.0 x16 lane featured inside the LGA1156 processors this would have a significant impact on gaming performance.

That single PCIe 2.0 x16 lane is designed to be used by a graphics card and when operating in Crossfire or SLI mode this bus is already halved. Therefore if Asrock was to use this lane a single graphics card would be limited to PCIe 2.0 x8 bandwidth and that is not acceptable. Therefore Asrock has integrated a small bridge chip which provides additional PCIe bandwidth by switching between available lanes.

Apart from the introduction of SATA3 and USB 3.0 support the new Asrock P55 Deluxe3 motherboard is very similar to the P55 Deluxe which currently retails for $180 US with a two port SATA3 6.0Gb/s expansion card included. The P55 Deluxe3 is also quite a step up from the P55 Extreme, a motherboard currently being used in my own personal gaming system. Therefore I am eager to see how the new P55 Deluxe3 performs.

Posted on: 05/02/2010 08:52 AM
USB 3.0 and SATA6 and full PCI-e 16x 2.0 rocks on Asrock but I'm really into energy savings as well (mostly because I pay my own bills).According to this review: http://techgage.com/article/evga_p55_ftw/11 EVGA P55 FTW consumes less power than most (MSI not included). Who's review shall I trust?

Posted on: 05/02/2010 11:45 PM
We donít use anything special. Just a meter that reads from the wall though ours cost considerably more than $14 US but that does not meant it is any better. As long as you are using the same meter to compare all boards then it doesnít really matter, you are performing an apples to apples comparison. Also comparing review is useless for a number of reasons. It is also worth mentioning that BIOS revisions can play a huge role here, not so much for the stress results but certainly for the idle results.

Calle2003

Posts: 16
Joined: 2010-04-27

Posted on: 05/19/2010 09:20 AMPosted by Steve on 05/03/2010 12:45 AM

We donít use anything special. Just a meter that reads from the wall though ours cost considerably more than $14 US but that does not meant it is any better. As long as you are using the same meter to compare all boards then it doesnít really matter, you are performing an apples to apples comparison. Also comparing review is useless for a number of reasons. It is also worth mentioning that BIOS revisions can play a huge role here, not so much for the stress results but certainly for the idle results.

The EVGA P55 FTW has considerably lower Power Consumption according to the review at techgage. It almost made me buy it for that reason (but I didn't since it's considerably more expensive and it lacks a Floppy connector, not used floppy for years, it's more for nostalgic reasons). When I see another review that states the opposite it confuses me. I did however notice one indisputable error, it should be (Lower is better), not (Higher is better) on the Power Consumption comparison.

PSDon't see this as criticism, only a neutral point of view.I still think LH is one of the best HW sites out there.